


Let Her Go

by renegadekarma



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Betrayal, Emotional, Gen, How May Changed, Other Sad Stuff, What Happened in Bahrain, pre-team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 19:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1659983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renegadekarma/pseuds/renegadekarma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melinda May had been warm once, a lover of pranks and mocking Fury.</p><p>Everything changed after Bahrain, and only Phil Coulson knows why.</p><p>[Set in Bahrain, many years before the events of the Avengers]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Her Go

**Author's Note:**

> So, yes, it's a bit overdramatic, but I really got to thinking what happened in Bahrain. There's not too much Philinda, but just enough, so enjoy!

It was a sunny Tuesday, the weather temperate, the birds singing, and Nick Fury yelling in from Melinda May’s earpiece suddenly.

“Are you going undercover?” The director suddenly barked, and her communications system went alive for a moment, causing the agent in her twenties to wince and press a hand to her left ear suddenly, quickly trying to make the motion look as if she was swatting a fly instead.

“At the moment, yes,” May replied under her breath, lips barely moving as she took a careful sip of her coffee. The shop that her and Coulson were perched by was particularly known for its lattes, so she’d treated herself to one while waiting for further instructions. It fit her profile, anyway; her and Phil were meant to be American tourists, completely unaware of the hostage situation.

Apparently, the government had found a group of SHIELD agents in their country, attempting to smuggle out an agent of theirs who’d gotten in some trouble by the people of Bahrain and was currently awaiting execution. Unfortunately, things had gone south, and most of the rescue team had been taken hostage. Coulson and May, fortunately, had managed to escape, but were working on getting back in to free the others.

Coulson, across from her at the table, nibbling on a pastry, glanced up when he noticed her lips move – they were so in tune with each other’s tendencies that something so small didn’t go unnoticed between them – and raised an eyebrow in question.

Fury spoke up in her ear again, this time quieter, “We’ve got news that the government worker that we’ve been tracking actually doesn’t work for Bahrain. He’s a Gifted; he can manipulate ice.”

May’s eyes widened fractionally, and she leaned to Coulson, speaking to Fury as if speaking to her partner. “So you’re saying that the threat we’re facing-“

“Is going to require a lot more effort than we thought,” Fury finished. “We could handle a government employee or even some ministers, but you need to think this case through, Melinda. He’s holding them in the warehouse by the embassy; and just to spurn SHIELD, he’s kidnapped a civilian woman walking by and is holding her hostage as well.”

Coulson was close enough to hear this new development, and he replied quietly to May, “What do we do now?”

May switched off her earpiece, hiding the action by curling a lock of hair behind her ear. “We need to think of something else. Storming in there isn’t going to work.” Dark eyes glanced over at her partner carefully. “I’m going to need a distraction.”

“Of what sort?” Phil cocked an eyebrow. “The ‘dress up like a giant chicken’ distraction or the ‘burn down a city to draw their attention elsewhere’ distraction?”

May rolled her eyes. “Neither. Somewhere in between.”

“You have done both, though,” Phil pointed out thoughtfully.

May rolled her eyes once more, although Fury (who’d somehow managed to reactivate her earpiece from the Hub) growled, “No pranks, this time, Melinda.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, it’s serious this time. No need to be such a downer, Nicky,” she replied with a huff.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Bye, Nicky,” she replied dismissively, turning off her earpiece once more and swiftly removing it to tuck in her pocket instead, keeping her movements quick and trying not to draw attention. She leaned back over the table to her partner. “You need to start some sort of protest outside. I’ll slip in and get the hostage and our agents.”

“That I can do,” Coulson nodded, finishing off his pastry and brushing the crumbs off onto the table. “We’ll say about nine tonight?” When May nodded, he grinned.

“Can I get another pastry now?”

***

When that night drew close, May and Coulson split, walking in opposite directions. He drew his gun and fired a few shots at a building; dummy rounds, but clearly the man inside the building who was keeping the others hostage didn’t know that.

Immediately, several figures stormed out from the warehouse, and May slipped in silently, a shadow that moved without a whisper, letting the heavy door swing shut behind her.

The room was only dimly lit, and it took her several seconds to adjust her eyes. She could make out the outline of several large boxes, packed full with something whose smell she couldn’t identify, but that mattered little. What caught May’s eye was the group of people huddled in the center of the room.

She turned her head side to side swiftly, but she saw no one waiting. Apparently, they were alone. Still, May took precautions and kept to the shadows, running quickly from one box to the next, her footsteps almost entirely silent. No one had noticed her until she quickly moved toward the group and bent toward a man.

His head was leaning forward, forehead dripping with blood. May clasped his shoulder and he glanced up in alarm before realizing that it was just one of his fellow agents and relaxed only slightly.

“Is this all of you?” she whispered. The man – Blackwood, she remembered his last name was – nodded in return before jerking his head at a woman with dark hair nearby.

“She’s not one of us; I think that she was just picked off the street as another hostage,” Blackwood replied, his voice a whisper.

“Who is this Gifted?” May asked, narrowing her eyes at the surroundings, wondering how much time she had. No matter how good Coulson was at making distractions, it still wouldn’t be too long before the others returned. “Fury said that he could manipulate ice.”

“There are two.” Blackwood’s voice was tense. “The I’ve never seen the one who manipulates ice, but it’s the other one you need to watch out for. He manipulates-“

But just then, the hostage gave a feeble cough and May approached her carefully, abandoning Blackwood. Her concern right now was civilian safety, so this woman was her number one priority.

Apparently she wasn’t a civilian.

May stared in disbelief at her sister.

“Christina,” she hissed, her tone almost guttural as she continued staring. “What are you doing here?”

The woman glanced up at her sister, dark eyes flashing. “I was sent in as _backup_. Fury thought that he could use me.”

“Nicky never told us, and look, you’ve managed to get yourself kept in hostage as well. How did they think that you were a civilian?”

Christina shifted. “I was walking outside the warehouse to scope things out, dressed as a tourist, when they found me and brought me in. They assumed that SHIELD would come to rescue me.” A sigh followed. “They were right.”

Melinda was still perturbed by the sudden reappearance of her sister – a younger woman, very unknown in SHIELD, who barely visited between missions and seemed to get in trouble whenever she did – but instead just narrowed her eyes. “Well, get up. We need to get you all out.”

Christina rose to her feet unsteadily, and helped rouse the others along with Blackwood. May pulled out a pistol and studied the area uncertainly, keeping her finger beside the trigger like she’d been trained.

“Phil will have bought us some time, but not much. We need to hurry,” she whispered to the others, and the agents, who’d all been trained for moments like this, obligingly followed her in a quick line, supporting each other so that only Christina and Melinda remained.

“We need to take in these Gifted men, introduce them to a bit of SHIELD protocol,” May announced to her younger sister.

Christina scowled. “That won’t be necessary. They already know enough about it.”

“What?”

A black figure burst out from behind a crate and May instinctively stepped in front of the younger woman, but Christina only sighed and stepped away.

“What are you doing?” Melinda hissed.

Christina only shrugged, lifting her hand. A snowflake formed on it, crusting her fingertips as May gaped at it.

“You’re the Gifted? The one who can manipulate ice that no one’s seen around?” Melinda’s breath caught in her throat, Christina’s slow smile only confirming it. “Why?”

“SHIELD fired me. Fury called me unreliable and too fiery tempered.” Christina’s hand clenched and the ice dissolved. “Apparently he didn’t know how ironic that was.”

“How did you get this? Were you born with it?” May questioned.

Christina grinned and motioned forward her partner. The man who emerged was tan, tall, and entirely unfamiliar.

“I was sent to take in Antonio to SHIELD, but he taught me how to unlock my own skills instead.” Christina studied her fingers, now completely free of ice. “It’s funny, the amount of damage a little fire and ice could do. Topple an oppressive agency, for example.”

“SHIELD isn’t about oppression, it’s about neutralizing threats and ensuring safety,” Melinda replied, lifting her gun and pointing it tentatively at Antonio.

“You could be so much more, Mindy, if you just bothered to let someone help you unlock it,” Christina sighed. “I could teach you. Antonio’s taught me everything he knows, and who knows; maybe you’ll be even more powerful than us.”

May scowled and pulled the trigger.

The bullet didn’t make it to Antonio. It melted in the air in a wave of fire that he sent her way, and May just managed to press herself to the floor in time. The agents who’d been filing out had already left before they could hear of Christina’s betrayal, but May didn’t care; her goal now was merely to take out the threats – other than her own sister, of course.

She aimed a kick at Antonio’s legs as he approached, but he was too fast; he reached for her hand and she yelped as it burned beneath his touch. Twisting her arm away, she got to her feet and reached for her gun again before firing several shots at him. He deflected all with heat waves and grinned as he approached again.

On the side, Christina sighed.

“How could you do this?” May hissed at her as she struggled to keep off Antonio. “I’m your sister. You worked for SHIELD, and you know that they’re far more moral than _he_ will ever be. What made you think that taking hostages was a good idea?”

“They needed to think that I was one of them. You see, I knew you’d come, you and Phil. My men probably have him tied up outside right now,” Christina replied, her tone almost bored.

“You clearly don’t know Phil Coulson as well as I do,” May laughed before firing again; not at Antonio, but at the crate behind him.

The lock split open, and the smell – finally recognizable as _manure_ – wafted out as several horses burst from the container, set free. They came almost in a stampede toward the three people; Antonio only had time to turn in shock before May threw a knife and pinned his hand to the crate. He howled in pain and tried in vain to pull, but he was stuck.

In fury, he lit the place up with fire; the air suddenly was filled with smoke, and May had to struggle to breathe.

“Christina,” she coughed, “I’m giving you a final chance. Come with me and renounce your allegiance to him; we’ll fix things with Fury, we’ll learn how to control this –“

_“No.”_

May grimaced as a horse approached her, but she grabbed hold of its saddle. “Last chance,” she warned.

Christina paused, taking a step toward her. They didn’t have much time; the room was filling fast with smoke, and in a few seconds, all the entries would be blocked by fire. It was now or never.

May had hefted herself onto the horse with one fluid swing and reached out for her sister as she ran toward her. There was redemption to be had, there was light in everyone, and just maybe, misguided Christina could be fine if she just reached out and took the help that May offered-

A ceiling beam fell with a loud creak, and with an even louder scream, Christina was pinned on the ground underneath it, her arm still reaching out.

“NO!” May shrieked, but it was too late; her horse had been moving the entire time, and she burst out into the sun on it, her gun still out in the other hand as she exited. Behind her, the building collapsed with a groan.

There was no one at this end of the building but Coulson, who’d neutralized the threat, but that didn’t faze the Asian woman.  May ran back toward the building after sliding off her horse. Coulson got to her in time and gripped her around the stomach, linking his arms to hold her back.

“SHE’S IN THERE!” May screeched, trying to fight his grip.

“Who?” Coulson questioned, struggling to keep her in place.

“Christina,” May sobbed, barely realizing that she was crying now. She stopped fighting only slightly. “There were two of the Gifted. One was the pyromaniac who did this, but the one who manipulated ice was Christina.” Her sobs intensified. “She wanted to get back at SHIELD for firing her and not letting her use her talents.”

It was then that she gave up, folding herself in Coulson’s arms while he wrapped his arms around her. She sobbed into his shoulder for a minute before pushing him away and running to the smoldering rubble. She dug into the blackened, twisted, metal frames, burning her hands several times in the process, but she didn’t care. There was no sign of her sister.

Sinking to her feet, May placed her head in her hands, trying to hide her tears. Coulson stepped toward her and placed an arm on her shoulder.

“You need to let her go,” he said finally.

May said nothing.

By now, the other agents they’d rescued had been done being healed by the medical team that Coulson had called in advance, and approached the burned building. The two agents could hear fragments of their conversation.

“Did you see Agent May?”

“What about those horses? I can’t believe she set them free!”

“There’s no way that either of them survived.”

May pulled herself to her feet, her eyes and face now dry as she studied the agents.

Blackwood, one of the few agents who was lucky enough to have escaped with minimal injuries, limped over. “The thing you did with the horses was amazing. You’re practically the Cavalry,” he informed her.

Somehow, that name caught on. Melinda wouldn’t understand it years from now, but it had spread like wildfire, as did the story of her heroic rescue. None of that resounded with her except for her sister’s betrayal and sudden death.

Christina may have been the one to manipulate ice, but it was May who turned into the true ice queen, enclosing her heart with a sheet of sleet that was unable to be thawed.


End file.
